Okay, so until recently I hadn't crafted much stuff, but after somehow spending nearly all of my energy credits I've been on a research binge to earn some money and get access to a few things that have been proving just too expensive on the exchange.
Anyway, one thing I couldn't get over is how horrible the interface is, and how much unlike crafting it feels like! Here's some of the stuff I'd like to see if there is ever a crafting overhaul:
Let Us Choose!
I'd like to see the interface changed completely. Leave in tabs for ground weapons, ground items and ship weapons and ship items, then give us buttons to choose the category of item we want (rather than the huge scroll or the drop-down menu). Once the category is chosen (e.g - beam arrays) we choose an sub-category (such as plasma). Then we pick the level of item, and any bonuses we want to apply.
For things like consoles which only have a rarity (no bonuses) this would just be common, uncommon, rare or very rare, but for things like weapons we'd get a list of bonuses we can add such as [Acc], [Dmg] etc., or [Reg], [Cap] and so-on for shields etc. The number of bonuses selected would determine the rarity of the item.
While doing this the UI would then simply show the cost of the item in data samples (by level) and unreplicatable materials as appropriate. If you don't currently have any schematics for the item then you will also see the cost of creating one (rather than having to do that separately). It will also calculate the research experience earned. Hit the craft button and wait for your customised item to be complete!
At least this way it would feel like crafting!
Specialisation
Currently there are no specialisations in crafting, and I think it's long overdue. Ideally the separate departments would allow for crafting of Mk XII items in a particular category. While I know we can get a random console of random quality from the Children's Toys assignment chain, this is too? well? random! That's fine since it has a relatively low cost and you can at least sell most of the resulting consoles for a profit even if it's of no use to you, but one of the advantages of being good at crafting should be making the high-level gear that you want.
It should be possible to only open a single specialisation per character, but it should have some goodies. In addition to unlock access to Mk XII gear, it should also allow you (with enough experience in that field) to create Advanced items, not quite like fleet weapons but instead with access to special bonuses. For example, it would open up crafting of consoles that have hybrid effects (e.g - a field generator that also gives a small shield regen boost).
The aim of the specialist bonuses should be to make more synergistic items that take quite a lot of work to craft but will let you get the most out of science and engineering console slots; with the current stacking of tactical consoles I'd probably just have rarity be the only factor for them to let crafting allow people to skew away from pure DPS output.
In general there needs to be way to really open crafting of interesting items. These would perhaps be bound on creation in order to avoid abuse (someone who loads their ship entirely with Mk XII advanced items using alts).
Reputation and Duty Officer Integration
Unlocking of specialisation, or even lower level crafting tiers, could be moved into a Reputation project that allows you to unlock the specific areas you're interested in. It would also be great if Reputation and/or Duty Officer assignments could be used to acquire bonus experience, or farm small amounts of unreplicatable materials (or specialist materials for Mk XII crafting).
All very good ideas. This is only the third mmo I've played. To me, the best example of a crafting system was the one in Star Wars Galaxies. It had a system that is very close to your ideas on specialization.
I've be hoarding crafting materials for quite a while, hoping they would do something with crafting, but they haven't.
With the reputation system I'm skeptical that they ever will. But, we can dream
All very good ideas. This is only the third mmo I've played. To me, the best example of a crafting system was the one in Star Wars Galaxies. It had a system that is very close to your ideas on specialization.
I've be hoarding crafting materials for quite a while, hoping they would do something with crafting, but they haven't.
With the reputation system I'm skeptical that they ever will. But, we can dream
I would like to see a crafting overhaul too but in the meanwhile, you do know that your your science officer, if you visit the bridge of your ship, has several doff missions that let you turn in those extra crafting mats for dilithium right?
I too am waiting for an update to the crafting system.
OP, I must say, that I did like your ideas. They seem reasonable and would fit in nicely with STO.
I remember seeing in a Ask Cryptic, maybe as far back as November, that crafting may get updated with S9 (??)
So I too have been saving up data samples and particle traces, to the point were I got max capacity of almost all of them twice... :eek:
As gfar as doing DOff missions to trade them for Dilithium... never seen those.. Where do you find them? Under the Department Heads tab in the DOff UI, or do you have to visit the bridge, and go to the science dept and talk to the scientist there?
- Players go to social hubs and buy from vendors one-time "schematic unlocks" for gear (weapons, armor, shields, engines, deflectors, kits), while newbies can also buy ready-made white quality gear if they wish to
- With the schematic unlocked, players can obtain from their ship's replicator white quality gear of their current Mk level with baseline stats
- Data samples can be used to upgrade these white quality gear by adding modifiers / increasing quality up to purple - the player visits a particular facility inside their ship to do so (perhaps a new engineering workshop room or a cargo bay)
- Custom kits, for instance combining a stealth module with a plasma grenade and ambush, could also be made this way.
- Item visuals can also be "crafted" this way.
The only caveat is that this idea effectively eliminates the need for Memory Alpha.
Thoughts?
In addition, specific parts of the ship interior would be used for fabricating / storing appropriate crafted items:
- Armory for crafting Green/Blue/Purple personal weapons/armor/shields
- Engineering workshop for crafting G/B/P ship weapons/engines
- Science lab for crafting G/B/P ship consoles/shields/deflectors
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
i just wish that the dilth cost was ONLY for mk X - mk XII gear....even with the low cost value for the lower levels i never make anythng other than mk VII gear due to that being the highest gear to be made without dilth cost....even though the even mks at lower level uses dilth....aka the replicatiable mats..
i just wish that the dilth cost was ONLY for mk X - mk XII gear....even with the low cost value for the lower levels i never make anythng other than mk VII gear due to that being the highest gear to be made without dilth cost....even though the even mks at lower level uses dilth....aka the replicatiable mats..
Well I think they need to keep Rare and Very Rare items suitably difficult to craft so that they remain valuable.
specific parts of the ship interior would be used for fabricating / storing appropriate crafted items
I like the idea of opening up parts of your ship for crafting; maybe would require a certain level on Memory Alpha first? But anything that adds more to do on your own ship is always a plus!
As gfar as doing DOff missions to trade them for Dilithium... never seen those.. Where do you find them? Under the Department Heads tab in the DOff UI, or do you have to visit the bridge, and go to the science dept and talk to the scientist there?
I think it must be the science officer on your ship; you need to visit your starship's bridge then head down to engineering. Somewhere on your map (depends on the interior size you choose when you customise your ship) you should find a science lab with an officer inside that gives you special duty officer missions. That's how you complete the Children's Toys chain once you find the special alien artefact since the science officer lets you power up so it can be used to create a console.
As the only way to make Mk XII consoles though it's a bit of hassle as you need to trawl the exploration clusters near Deep Space Nine (Rolor Nebula, Zenas Expanse and Betraka Nebula or something like that) until you get the assignment to acquire a rare commodity. But even that stage requires Shapeshifting Lockets and Jevonite that you need to hunt around for...
It's why I don't mind at all paying Dilithium for Rare/Very Rare stuff, just so long as I can actually craft the things I want, rather than the limited selection that the crafting system currently offers. The advantage of crafting after all should be customisation, even if certain items are limited only to creating them for yourself.
On the issue of the Reputation system here's how I'd see it working:
Reputation tiers determine what mark of equipment you can craft, ideally currently research level should be converted into an appropriate reputation tier.
Each tier unlocks new modifiers to choose from on items you craft; so at tier 0 (Mk I to Mk IV items) you might be able to apply [Acc] and [Dmg] modifiers to weapons. Each additional tier will unlock more modifiers, with later tiers offering a choice of which modifiers (or class of modifiers) you unlock, while tier V will instead unlock specialisation projects.
"Upgrade" (third slot) projects are used to convert data samples into tiered research data. For example, purple samples (of any type) become tier V research data. These tokens are then used to craft, so crafting Mk XI items will require tier V research data, rather than requiring specific data samples like it does now. Higher mark items (such as Mk XI and Mk XII) may require Dilithium as well to fund the research.
Upgrade projects are used to convert particle traces into rare and very rare research data, which is required to create corresponding rarity items. Any trace will do, only the total amount of traces required will differ. So if you wish to create an [Acc] [CrtH] [CrtD] weapon then you'll need to produce Very Rare Research Data in order to do-so.
Once you reach tier V you will choose a project that determines your specialisation. This unlocks the ability to create "advanced" items of a particular type. Advanced weapons will have advanced modifiers to choose from such as [Dmg]x3 or other, more unusual, effects, though these may lack some of the previous freedom. For example, [Dmg]x3 counts as two modifiers, leaving you only able to apply one more modifier of your choice afterwards so while powerful it's not automatically better than a choice of three single modifiers. For "advanced" consoles you will choose to combine the effects of the console with another, allowing you to have tactical consoles that improve weapon power setting, or field generators with shield regen rate bonuses and so-on, though the secondary effect will be minor (i.e - not as powerful as a proper weapon power or shield regen console, but not requiring a free slot).
Once you've chosen a specialisation you will be able to accumulate resources towards a one-off special project. Each specialisation will offer a choice of "elite" item you can unlock, though you can only unlock one per character and it is bound on creation. For example, weapon specialisation may offer a choice between a quad cannon, a quad beam bank, a rapid fire beam array or a rapid fire torpedo launcher, which you can then customise as normal. Console specialisation may allow you to create a single console that has multiple secondary effects rather than just one, similar to the embassy consoles.
You could possibly unlock all specialisations, though with increasing requirements for each specialisation project after the first. However subsequent specialisations won't have access to any further elite items; you only get one per character.
Comments
I've be hoarding crafting materials for quite a while, hoping they would do something with crafting, but they haven't.
With the reputation system I'm skeptical that they ever will. But, we can dream
I would like to see a crafting overhaul too but in the meanwhile, you do know that your your science officer, if you visit the bridge of your ship, has several doff missions that let you turn in those extra crafting mats for dilithium right?
OP, I must say, that I did like your ideas. They seem reasonable and would fit in nicely with STO.
I remember seeing in a Ask Cryptic, maybe as far back as November, that crafting may get updated with S9 (??)
So I too have been saving up data samples and particle traces, to the point were I got max capacity of almost all of them twice... :eek:
As gfar as doing DOff missions to trade them for Dilithium... never seen those.. Where do you find them? Under the Department Heads tab in the DOff UI, or do you have to visit the bridge, and go to the science dept and talk to the scientist there?
In addition, specific parts of the ship interior would be used for fabricating / storing appropriate crafted items:
- Armory for crafting Green/Blue/Purple personal weapons/armor/shields
- Engineering workshop for crafting G/B/P ship weapons/engines
- Science lab for crafting G/B/P ship consoles/shields/deflectors
i just wish that the dilth cost was ONLY for mk X - mk XII gear....even with the low cost value for the lower levels i never make anythng other than mk VII gear due to that being the highest gear to be made without dilth cost....even though the even mks at lower level uses dilth....aka the replicatiable mats..
I like the idea of opening up parts of your ship for crafting; maybe would require a certain level on Memory Alpha first? But anything that adds more to do on your own ship is always a plus!
I think it must be the science officer on your ship; you need to visit your starship's bridge then head down to engineering. Somewhere on your map (depends on the interior size you choose when you customise your ship) you should find a science lab with an officer inside that gives you special duty officer missions. That's how you complete the Children's Toys chain once you find the special alien artefact since the science officer lets you power up so it can be used to create a console.
As the only way to make Mk XII consoles though it's a bit of hassle as you need to trawl the exploration clusters near Deep Space Nine (Rolor Nebula, Zenas Expanse and Betraka Nebula or something like that) until you get the assignment to acquire a rare commodity. But even that stage requires Shapeshifting Lockets and Jevonite that you need to hunt around for...
It's why I don't mind at all paying Dilithium for Rare/Very Rare stuff, just so long as I can actually craft the things I want, rather than the limited selection that the crafting system currently offers. The advantage of crafting after all should be customisation, even if certain items are limited only to creating them for yourself.
On the issue of the Reputation system here's how I'd see it working:
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates